by Platt, Sean
“Nothing, just thinking how weird everything is here.”
Of course, given her age and how much of her childhood she’d spent indoors, Abigail couldn’t be certain that at least some of these animals didn’t also exist on Earth. Most of her worldly knowledge had come from books, after all.
So far, thankfully, she hadn’t seen anything too scary. She hoped their luck would hold out until they reached Jonah. Despite her unease, she wasn’t genuinely afraid because she was with Judith, Solomon, and Talani, who had easily dispatched the soldiers outside the portal despite their many guns and security measures. Surely, they could put down a few scary animals if they had to.
After what felt like hours of walking, they stopped along the roadside, and Solomon slung his backpack onto the ground.
“Anybody thirsty?”
Talani said yes, and Abigail echoed.
Solomon handed them each a bottle of water then shared his with Judith.
Abigail drank, not wanting to mention her hunger, wondering if the other vampires even ate food or if they filled up on the soldiers guarding the portal. Abigail’s human and vampire appetites were very different things. But she didn’t know if that was true for others. She’d seen John eat but wasn’t sure if it was something he needed to do. She remembered seeing a movie with Larry one night called Let the Right One In, where the vampire girl got sick after eating. But it wasn’t exactly a documentary, and even if it had been, Abigail, John, and the others were different kinds of vampires — with these weird parasites that totally grossed her out whenever she thought too much about it.
Her vampire side wasn’t yet hungry, but her stomach was growling.
Abigail couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten solid food. Her growl only grew louder as she drank, enough to widen Talani’s eyes. “Is that you?”
Abigail nodded. “Yeah. Sorry.”
Talani turned to Solomon. “The poor kid is starving. Do you have anything in there to eat?”
The fact that Talani asked Solomon if he had food made her wonder if maybe they didn’t eat. She couldn’t imagine not eating, then she started thinking about all the yummy foods she’d had since John saved her from Randy’s closet of horror — french fries, milkshakes, pizza, and those cheese sticks that Katya had loved.
Of course, thinking of these things only made her hungrier.
Solomon reached into his backpack, pulled out a banana, and threw it to Abigail.
While she hadn’t expected him to throw it, her instincts were surprisingly quick, and her hand flicked forward to seize the banana.
She was surprised by her reflexes. Abigail was definitely faster, and her instincts sharper than ever, but she hadn’t realized how much had changed since becoming a vampire. She wondered if being around this group was enhancing her abilities. Nobody else seemed to notice, maybe because it wasn’t impressive to them.
Abigail said, “Thank you” and peeled her banana.
After Solomon slipped back into his pack, they continued on their way, drinking and eating as they walked.
“When you’re done, give your bottles and banana peel to Solomon,” Judith said. “We don’t want to leave any evidence.”
“What would people do if they found our stuff, or found us?” Abigail asked.
“I don’t know,” Judith said. “And I’d prefer we not find out. That’s why we’re all wearing these clothes, to blend in with the natives. It’s been a long time since I’ve been here, so I don’t know how much has changed. But I do know that we can’t let people know we’re from Earth. They may take us as enemies, or want to know the portal’s location. It won’t end well. Fortunately, Solomon has been talking to his sister, and she’s going to create covers for us to live under the radar.”
“How did he talk to his sister?” Abigail asked. “Telepathy?”
Solomon looked at Judith, as if seeking approval to respond.
She nodded.
“Magick. Specifically a book he’s had since he came over to Earth ages ago.”
“Cool.” Abigail wondered if she could use it to reach John. She didn’t want to ask, yet. “How does it work? And how were you able to find your sister?”
Solomon answered, “It’s a family book. We’ve been writing back and forth for millennia.”
“Wow. And you haven’t seen her since you left Earth? She never crossed over?”
“No. All the portals were closed.”
“Until John and his brothers opened one,” Abigail said. “And then Jacob opened the other.”
“Yes.”
“Do you think there will be more?” Abigail asked.
“I don’t know. But I figured if we were going to return home, we ought to do it before either someone closes it, or —”
Solomon stopped.
Abigail caught Judith giving him a glance — like he’d said too much.
“Or what?” Abigail said, undeterred by Judith’s glare.
Judith responded, “We don’t know what’s going to happen with the portals. But it could get ugly.”
“How?” Abigail remembered John and Larry discussing the terrible things that could happen if Jacob unleashed his monsters on Earth, but that seemed like worst-case speculation. It wasn’t as if Jacob had told them of his diabolical plans. Maybe Judith or Solomon had inside information.
“I’ve seen the things King Zol does to his enemies when I lived here before,” Judith said. “If he goes through the portals, no one on Earth will be safe.”
Abigail wondered if John and Larry would be in danger, but didn’t want to voice her fear. She felt hesitant to mention them, though she wasn’t sure why.
Talani was looking at her but not saying anything.
Are you in my head, Talani? Should I avoid mentioning John and Larry?
She waited for a response that never came.
But Talani did have a conspiratorial gleam in her eye, a let’s just keep this between us sort of look. She wondered if Talani could read her thoughts but couldn’t broadcast so close to Judith without Judith overhearing.
Talani gave the subtlest of nods.
Abigail smiled, comforted by their shared link rather than feeling violated as she initially had at the thought of a stranger rooting through her memories and thoughts.
Abigail looked at Judith walking with Solomon. “If the King is such a scary guy, why are we even coming to this planet?”
“Because sometimes it’s better to hide in plain sight. The Outcasts, most of them expelled from the walled-off King’s Forgotten Kingdom, have been living under the city of Jonah for a long time.”
“Why do the Outcasts live under the city? Hiding from the King?”
“No, the King doesn’t care about them. They’re not his concern if they’ve left his flock.”
“Then who are they hiding from?”
“The Hand of the Seven Gods.”
“Who are they?” Abigail asked, confused.
Solomon suddenly stopped.
Judith paused in response, and for a moment time seemed to freeze, until Abigail saw the black arrow sticking out of the back of Solomon’s skull.
Abigail screamed.
Time pitched forward in a gut-churning lurch as Solomon fell face forward to the grass. Screams erupted in the woods.
And then, as Solomon’s spell died with him, the sun unleashed hell upon them.
Four
John
It wasn’t an army, but John guessed it would have to do.
It was daybreak, and he was standing just outside the portal, in the mobile control center with Special Agent in Charge Serena Sanders. They were looking out the truck’s window at the assembled team of twelve agents who would join John, Larry, and Hope on their trip to Otherworld to retrieve the crystals.
John thought it would be hell trying to convince Omega and The Guardians to allow civilians Larry and Hope to join them. But John made it clear that he wasn’t going alone, and if he couldn’t bring his most trusted people, th
en he wasn’t going at all. The Agency could take their chances with humans. To his surprise, he didn’t get much of an argument from Sanders, though they did have a lengthy discussion establishing the mission’s ground rules.
While they saw eye to eye on the primary objective, they disagreed on the others. There was only one for the Agency: to retrieve the crystals and find a way to close the portals.
But John wasn’t coming back without Abigail or his brother, Caleb — assuming Caleb hadn’t, as Jacob had boasted, been turned bad by their father.
“So, these are your best?” John surveyed the field of agents. There were eight men and four women, all of them, save for a couple, looking too green for a battle against Jacob and whatever other hellish beasts waited on the other side.
“This is who the bosses would let me take,” Sanders said with resignation, hand on her hip as she looked at them through the window. “After all, we’ve got to keep our best people defending both portals in case Jacob, or anyone else, invades while we’re over there.”
John supposed it made sense, though he wished their number was greater. He remembered seeing the video showing how easily the vampires with Abigail had dispatched the soldiers guarding the portal; the battle lasted only seconds.
“This crew is more experienced than the ones that were guarding the portal before, right?”
“Yes. They have field experience dealing with Otherworlders.”
“How many of those Otherworlders were vampires, as opposed to some halfassed magick user or thief?”
“Enough to give us hope, but not enough that we should be counting chickens.”
“Well, thank you for your honesty. And hey, at least they’re letting you go.”
She shrugged as if it wasn’t any great honor. Hell, maybe they wanted her to go because they saw her as expendable. Gotta keep her position open for someone a bit more willing to play ball, after all.
“There’s one other thing you should know, John. You see that one?” Sanders nodded toward a petite young woman sitting cross-legged on the asphalt smoking a cigarette and anxiously eying the portal. Everything about her looked like she either needed attention or rejected authority, maybe both, from her purple pixie cut, multiple facial piercings and black lipstick, to the tattoos covering her hands and creeping up her arms under the Guardian uniform.
“Her name is Emma Crowe, a Halfworlder thief whose twin brother, Logan, was with a group we sent through for recon.”
“He was lost?”
“Yeah, along with six other agents, four days ago.”
“So, why are we bringing her? She’s just a kid.”
“Don’t let her looks fool you. She’s one of the best at getting in and out of places. A master of shadows, as your people say.”
John laughed. “I hadn’t heard that one, but okay.”
“She’s also got a telepathic bond with her brother, so she might be our key to getting around over there.”
“Assuming he’s alive?”
Sanders nodded. “Emma said she felt his presence. That he’s still alive, and once we’re over there she hopes to contact him.”
“Does she even want to go? She looks pissed.”
“Emma’s pissed at the world. Her father was a magick-using troublemaker who died when she was fourteen. She and her brother lived on the streets for a while until we caught them breaking into a black site where we were holding a friend of theirs.”
“And, what, you decided to hire them?”
“Long story short, we persuaded her brother to work with rather than against us. We offered them a chance to have normal lives, something they never could’ve had otherwise. Gave them new names and a house, set them on the straight and narrow.”
No, the agency saw a couple of kids with powers they could exploit. Let’s not pretend you all are rehabilitating people out of the goodness of your hearts.
John didn’t say that, of course. Serena wasn’t like the others in her position before. She probably hated exploiting Otherworlders as much as anyone.
John looked at the girl and wondered how much pain she’d seen in her young life living among Otherworlders and Halfworlders. John hated that so many of the criminal Otherworlders couldn’t keep to their own, finding humans to breed with. Why bring kids into a world that wasn’t meant for their kind? Under a government that actively sought out their marginalization and extinction?
He found himself thinking of Abigail, and how she’d had that same lost look when he found her.
John asked, “Think she’ll be up for this?”
“Think your people will be?”
John nodded as he looked at Hope and Larry just outside the truck and getting outfitted with Agency gear and uniforms. He wouldn’t tell Sanders, but John was worried about their odds of survival.
Larry was habitually out of shape, had bushy hair and a beard that looked like he didn’t give two fucks about grooming, and a body built by Mountain Dew and Doritos, though he’d proved himself a scrappy survivor many times over the years. But Hope was another story.
She was in decent enough shape for a civilian, but Hope hadn’t been through the battles that he and Larry had. And, so far as John knew, she had little training with weapons. Sure, Hope had saved his life when putting a bullet in Greg, but that was a close shot, against one man. How would she fare against multiple inhuman enemies that ran so fast they were a blur to the human eye?
Still, she insisted on coming. And what else could he do? Have someone wipe her memory and hide her away, again? Even if she’d allow it, which she wouldn’t, they didn’t have the time, and John could no longer trust the Agency to protect her. They’d probably hide her away again, wipe her memory, then use her as leverage to get him to continue doing their bidding, again.
But maybe there was more to Hope than he knew.
Ever since his discovery that she was, in fact, an Otherworlder sent over shortly after he and Caleb, John wondered how much she’d been through. He also wondered who originally wiped her mind, to keep her ignorant of her heritage. It had to be someone with The Guardians, maybe even the late Duncan Alderman, the man who had protected Caleb, and kept John locked in government research labs trying to turn him into an Agency asset.
Whatever the case, he had to trust that Hope could take care of herself — that she would find a way to survive in Otherworld, particularly if something happened to him. Perhaps her instincts were razor-sharp and would awaken in a moment of crisis.
“Ready?” Sanders asked.
John sighed. “Yeah, let me talk with Larry and Hope one last time, make sure they’re good.”
“Okay, I’ll call the boss and get this thing going.”
John stepped outside of the truck and approached Hope and Larry.
Larry was struggling to strap a bulletproof vest over his black Guardian uniform. “They really ought to make these fuckers a bit bigger for us plus-sized guys.”
“Or maybe you could slow down on the Mountain Dew?” John suggested.
“Screw you, buddy. You just hate me because I’m sexy. It’s okay. I’ve lived with the pain of being beautiful all my life. You know how it is, right, Hope?”
She laughed and joked, “Yep, it’s rough to be so pretty.”
“See?” Larry said. “Maybe someday you’ll understand, John.”
Larry leaned over and unzipped a black tactical backpack on the ground. In addition to supplies needed on their trip, he revealed two bottles of Dew.
“Really?” John asked.
“Hey, I’m guessing we’re gonna need all the caffeine we can get.”
John shook his head then turned to Hope, also decked out in Guardian black, staring out at the horizon and seemingly lost in thought.
He wondered if she was having second thoughts about the journey, or hell, maybe second thoughts on being with him.
It had only been a few days since she’d remembered her life with him in the nineties, and how he’d betrayed her by wiping her memories and h
iding her away. She’d been plenty pissed, and he couldn’t really blame her. He also couldn’t blame her if she’d lost whatever love she’d once felt for him. It had been a long time since they’d been together as a couple, and who knew how much she remembered, how much of her more recent life clouded out her old life, or if their love could survive such a break.
He still loved her, but it was easy for him. John had devoted his life to protecting her, even if they couldn’t be together and his touch spelled her death. Something about that kind of sacrifice placed her on a constant pedestal in his heart.
But back together, pedestals were out of place. Now he had the hard work of earning her trust, trying to reignite whatever embers might still be burning.
“You okay?” John put a gloved hand on her uniformed shoulder.
Hope met his eyes, blinked as if trying to snap back to the moment. “Yeah, just thinking this could be the last time I see our sun rise.”
“We’re going to make it back.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Make promises you can’t keep. You don’t know what’s going to happen over there any better than I do. So, please, let’s not pretend.”
Larry looked at them, realized they needed space to talk, then walked over to Emma with the purple hair, and started to chat.
John turned back to Hope. He really didn’t want to start their trek to another world with an argument. Besides, wasn’t it just a few nights ago that Hope had begged to come, said if he died, she wanted to die with him? Maybe she was finally coming to her senses.
“You don’t have to come. I can have Larry stay with you. I know he looks like a slob and his sense of humor is crass, but he’s a great guy, and you couldn’t ask for a better bodyguard. Maybe we could even get some other Guardians to protect you.”
It wasn’t his favorite option, particularly since he didn’t trust them not to take her again. Still, dancing with the devil he knew might not be the worst idea.
“No, John. You’re not pushing me away again. I lost more than a decade of my life because of you! Do you know what it’s like to have your life stolen? To be given a false history, a past, a family, and memories that aren’t even yours?”